Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Counterplot by Dai George (Author), Harry Myers (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher).
About the Author
Dai George is a writer, critic and editor from Cardiff. His first poetry collection, The Claims Office (Seren, 2013), was an Evening Standard book of the year, and his work has been widely published in magazines and anthologies such as The Guardian, The White Review, New Welsh Reader, Boston Review and The Salt Book of Younger Poets.
Follow @dai_r_george on Twitter, on Goodreads, Visit daigeorge.com, Buy The Counterplot
About the Audiobook
The year is 1605 and Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, is struggling -- his writing career has waned and his patron, Lord D’Aubigny, has grown tired of his company. Throwing caution to the wind, Jonson pens a satirical play Eastward Ho! that includes the Monarch among its targets. But the laughs it gets cost its author dearly, landing Jonson in jail, his reputation in tatters.
Finally released, Jonson discovers that his wife Anne has gone missing. The two have been estranged, driven apart by the tragic deaths of their three children and by Jonson’s long absences from home. Eventually Ben learns that in her desperation, Anne has found comfort with the members of a Roman Catholic sect. Out of his desire to be reconciled with his wife, Ben himself becomes entangled in this secretive group, though when their planned treachery becomes clear he tries to expose them. His warnings are ignored by his former patron, Lord D’Aubigny. And after the Gunpowder Plot fails ignominiously, Ben and his wife are suspected of having been part of the conspiracy. Fittingly, it is only through his pen that Jonson can save them both.
Set in the early 17th century, this is a tale of intrigue, but also one of a man who simply tries to reconcile his ambitions with his broken marriage and with his life in general. In a way the author creates a correlation between past and present by doing so.
The normality of his worries and attempts to make a living, whilst trying to regain some semblance of his previous marital relationship are really not that much different from someone in our day and age. Barring the ambitious assassination plots, the possibility of being jailed and beheaded for contentious words both written and spoken of course, perhaps even more dangerous when your words are played out on the stage for the entire city to experience.
The story is written very much with the feel and sound of the era, so at times it feels as if the listener has stepped into the 17th century and standing in the midst of the bustling streets listening to the characters or standing in the children's chambers as the parents confront their grief.
Chapter 19 is tragic and yet equally as beautiful in its unavoidable pain, horror and tragedy. Perceived as a natural occurrence and an event one shouldn't and couldn't spend time fixating on or indeed on the loss.
It's an historical thriller plotted with the pace of a piece of literary fiction - it's visceral and engrossing. George gives his listeners a combination of almost poetic like exchanges - old English - and a character who stumbles through life with an almost accidental propensity for danger, pain, embarrassment and ultimately survival.
Buy The Counterplot at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.
Audible Audiobook: Listening Length: 15 hours and 21 minutes, Program Type: Audiobook, Version: Unabridged, Publisher: Audible Studios, Audible.co.uk - Release Date: 23 Dec. 2019, Language: English, English, ASIN: B0821KKMBN
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